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3PAR InServ Storage Server Advantages

The 3PAR InSpire^® Architecture featured in the 3PAR InServ^® Storage Servers combines the following advantages for 3PAR^® Utility Storage customers:

Thin Built In Technology
Mesh-Active Controller Technology
Native Tiered Storage Capabilities
ASIC-Assisted Performance
Unmatched Resilience
Superior System Density

Thin Built In TechnologyWith the introduction of the revolutionary, zero-detection capable 3PAR Gen3 ASIC in all InServ F-Class and T-Class arrays, 3PAR is the first storage vendor to offer storage with Thin Built In^™. 3PAR's Thin Built In technology provides an efficient, ASIC-based mechanism for converting traditional “fat” volumes from other platforms to more efficient “thin” volumes. This hardware innovation boosts capacity utilization by removing allocated but unused space. The purpose-built 3PAR Gen3 ASIC with Thin Built In expedites volume migrations and eliminates the disruptiveness associated with software-based fat-to-thin products.

Mesh-Active Controller TechnologyAll InServ arrays feature 3PAR’s unique Mesh-Active controller technology. Unlike legacy “active-active” midrange controller architectures—where each LUN (or volume) is active on only a single controller—3PAR’s Mesh-Active architecture allows each LUN to be active on every mesh controller in the array. By concurrently applying all node resources to each LUN, Mesh-Active technology delivers far more headroom in addition to load-balanced performance and simplified management for virtual datacenters.

Native Tiered Storage CapabilitiesCustomers use highly virtualized 3PAR arrays to consolidate storage, reduce SAN infrastructure, and achieve service level targets at a significantly reduced cost. The modularity of the InSpire Architecture makes the system extremely adaptable, so users can mix storage tiers and protocols within the same system to respond rapidly to changing business conditions, simplify storage infrastructure, and lower costs.

3PAR Utility Storage integrates the following storage tiering capabilities:

Tiered Capacity: Support for Solid State Drive (SSD), Fibre Channel, and Nearline (enterprise SATA) capacity within a single array delivers consolidated, tiered application services as well as cost and performance optimization.
Multiple RAID Levels: Massively and autonomically striped levels of RAID 0, 1, 5, and RAID MP (Fast RAID 6) deliver tiered application services from a single, highly consolidated array.
Flexible Connectivity: Optimize storage service levels on demand by non-disruptively converting data service levels as needed across SSD, Fibre Channel, and Nearline storage tiers.
Adaptive Connectivity: Scalable, cost-effective levels of Fibre Channel and iSCSI host connectivity ensure maximum consolidation value and fabric simplification.

In addition, 3PAR Utility Storage offers several autonomic storage tiering options:

Volume Level Tiering: Non-disruptively move volumes between storage tiers to dynamically and cost-efficiently meet service level targets. With 3PAR Dynamic Optimization software, you can modify volume parameters and redistribute volumes across SSD, Fibre Channel, and Nearline storage tiers to meet changing service level requirements on demand.
Sub-Volume Level Tiering: Deliver the right Quality of ServiQoS to the right data at the right time by matching data to the most cost-efficient resource capable of meeting service level targets at any given point in time. 3PAR Adaptive Optimization software gives enterprise and cloud datacenters policy-based, autonomic data movement at the sub-volume level to increase agility and meet service level targets for up to 30% less.

Learn more about storage tiering with 3PAR »

ASIC-Assisted PerformanceThe InSpire Architecture delivers high and predictable performance through a full-mesh interconnect that offers tight coupling and autonomic load balancing of each workload across all system resources (drives, nodes, loops, cache, and ports). With 3PAR, you can easily and predictably adapt to changing application workloads without resorting to uncertain manual tuning exercises or investing in new silos of infrastructure.

3PAR Utility Storage promotes simpler, more cost-effective performance via the following:

Unsurpassed Scalability: Scalable levels of predictable performance headroom are achieved through non-disruptively adding Controller Nodes to the system.
Mixed Workload Support: Eliminate the need to plan and purchase separate arrays to support segregation of different application workloads. InServ arrays deliver simultaneously high transaction levels and throughput-intensive performance through parallelization of data movement (3PAR Gen3 ASIC and Data Cache) and metadata processing (Intel^® CPUs and Control Cache).
Fast RAID 5 and Fast RAID 6: Achieve the performance of traditional RAID mirroring but with less storage capacity, massive parallelization, ASIC-assisted RAID 5 and RAID 6 XOR calculations, and effective full-stripe writes deliver high performance without high data protection overhead.
Adaptive Caching: Autonomic, real-time optimization of read and write cache levels provide high levels of performance—even under changing conditions—without maintaining manual settings.

Unmatched ResilienceThe resilience of the 3PAR infrastructure simply cannot be matched by traditional arrays. Even under failure conditions, the InSpire Architecture sustains high levels of performance through advanced error isolation and massive parallelism. Designed to eliminate acute component-level dependencies, InServ Storage Servers maintain application workloads more consistently than other arrays.

3PAR Utility Storage achieves unmatched resilient infrastructure through the following:

Built-in Redundancy: Active hardware components and full redundancy of software. Protection for extended power failures through de-staging of cache data to permanent media.
Non-Disruptive Upgradability: All hardware and software upgrades are completed online and non-disruptively to minimize impact on production performance levels.
Rapid RAID Rebuild: Reliable, rapid recovery in the event of a failure through rebuilding only used chunklets using a many-to-many drive relationship.
RAID Isolation: Lose a Drive Chassis without losing your data. Isolation of RAID sets across multiple Drive Chassis minimizes the impact of failures.
Write Data Protection: Write-cache mirroring and prevention of "pinned data" through dedicated preserved data space.

Superior System Density3PAR InServ T-Class arrays enjoy a 2x system density advantage over traditional storage arrays, enabling you to build or lease half the floor space for your online storage. Cabinets do not have adjacency requirements, so your organization can simplify floor space planning and avoid costly, unused footprint reservations for future expansions. For additional flexibility, InServ F-Class Storage Servers can be mounted in third-party 19" standard racks as well as standard 3PAR 2-meter, 19" cabinets.